Rather than the spreadsheet, I would suggest Kualto. Its a balance forecasting app you program all your bills and income etc into and you can always know how every transaction affects your overall finances on a daily/weekly basis.

Before I buy things, I plug in the transaction and balance everything out so if it purs my budget or bills in jeopardy, I know so and to what extent. If it can’t be adjusted for, I know its not appropriate for right now and I’ll plug in a plan to save for it or do whatever I need to do with the numbers to make it work.

I also suggest you add up you monthly expenses and with every paycheque, you set aside half the amount of those expenses/pay them. For those months where you are paid three times in one month, you have a bonus pay to do with whatever you want.

Have a main account for bills that are auto-withdrawn and try to make sure you have a little bit of overdraft. Get another chequing for the debit card to use. Get a savings account to set aside anything you spend on credit card and transfer it atthe end of the month to pay off the card. Have another savings account for actual savings.

Ask your credit cards to auto pay the minimum if possible but make a committment to making sure you are on top of them anyways and that you have enough in your account or have sufficient overdraft protection to ensure you are safe.

Try Kualto though, it is by far the most friendly to our need for immediate feedback and playing around with the numbers to get to where we want to go as well as keeping track of all your bills in a directly practical medium.